PRIME: Facilitative Approach for Nascent Markets

Mercy Corps believes that “in a market-development approach, facilitation seeks to catalyze a market system (all the elements of the market) while remaining outside that market system.”

USAID agrees and adds that “market facilitators work to stimulate markets to evolve in a way that increasingly involves and benefits both the producers and the businesses without becoming a part of the market themselves. They seek to catalyze ongoing pro-poor market improvement, while keeping ownership firmly among market actors
and avoiding dependency”.

To build resilience of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and people transitioning-out-of-pastoralism (TOPs) of Ethiopia’s dry-land communities, Mercy Corps’ Pastoral Areas Resilience Improvement Through Market Expansion (PRIME) project strengthens the systems within which vulnerable households operate. The project does so using a facilitative approach, by integrating activities, and appropriate "push-pull" strategies.

Download this library resource to learn more about the facilitation approach in nascent markets.

Microlinks. The information provided on this website is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.